“I have a simple message: Hold on a little longer. A better America begins tonight,” he said.

Amplifying his message, Romney added: “The last few years have been the best that Barack Obama can do, but it’s not the best America can do!”

He sought to move beyond the image of him as a Gordon Gekko corporate raider, talking about his father’s own hardscrabble life and taking head-on the criticism of a venture capital career that made him a near quarter-billionaire.

“I’d tell you that not every business made it, and there were good days and bad days, but every day was a lesson. And after 25 years, I know how to lead us out of this stagnant Obama economy and into a job-creating recovery,” he told an audience of several hundred at the Radisson Hotel Armory.

-He sought to recapture Ronald Reagan’s penetrating 1980 question - “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” - by asking, “Is it easier to make ends meet?”

A chorus of “No” rang out as Romney continued to ask about pocketbook issues: “Is it easier to sell your home or buy a new one? Have you saved what you needed for retirement? Are you making more in your job?”

-He sought to outline the contrast he hopes will dominate the remainder of the campaign, his support for what he terms a free-enterprise society versus what he says is Obama’s belief in a government-centered one.

“This president is putting us on a path where our lives will be ruled by bureaucrats and boards, commissions, and czars. He’s asking us to accept that Washington knows best – and can provide all,” said Romney. “Those who promise to spread the wealth around only ever succeed in spreading poverty.”

Romney said with his vision, “because there are so many enterprises that are succeeding, the competition for hard-working, educated and skilled employees is intense, and so wages and salaries rise.”

-He sought to undercut the prime mantra of the political party rivaling that which he now leads, challenging the Democrats’ argument that they are the guardians of fairness.

“We will stop the unfairness of urban children being denied access to the good schools of their choice,” he said, alluding to his support for charter schools.

“We will stop the unfairness of politicians giving taxpayer money to their friends’ businesses,” Romney said, smoothly delivering a more pointed shot he usually takes at Obama’s support for Solyndra, a failed renewable energy company.

-And, finally, Romney sought to provide the inspiration that people expect not just from the nation’s chief executive officer, but its leader.

“There was a time – not so long ago – when each of us could walk a little taller and stand a little straighter because we had a gift that no one else in the world shared. We were Americans. That meant something different to each of us but it meant something special to all of us. We knew it without question. And so did the world,” he said. “Those days are coming back. That’s our destiny.”

If you're a Republican and even if you're not, are you happy with Romney's speech? Do you think he's the man to lead the Republican Party to victory of President Obama in November?